**Note—if you are looking at this from your email or Substack, it might say “Preview” when you click to listen to the episode above. It is NOT just a preview. It is the full episode! You can also listen on the podcast platform of your choice!
The podcast is back!
I’m excited about this. Talking is one of my jams.
We started over at episode 01 with a podcast name to match this Substack’s name—Casual Simplicity.
Episode 01 of the Casual Simplicity podcast is all about back to school rhythms–finding your rhythms and setting them up for success with kid routine checklists. Whether you attend public, private, or homeschool, these visual checklists can help your young children visually see what needs to get done in the morning, after school, and at bedtime so you don’t need to constantly nag.
SHOW NOTES
Hi!!! We’re back! The podcast is back! But I did delete the old podcast a year ago so I’m starting from scratch. I’m excited though! I always loved the podcast before.
We’re set up for a plan for a good episode creation rhythm I can sustain. And I’m saving my time elsewhere–like basically cutting out all social media, but that’s a topic for another day.
So what can you expect for this podcast now? You can expect a bi monthly podcast. Most months you’ll get two episodes. Some months you’ll get a bonus third episode. And I’ll keep a monthly newsletter with all the simplifying goodies, links, etc. instead of the weekly one I was sending.
ANYWAY, WELCOME BACK! To the Casual Simplicity podcast where you’ll find, aside from this little intro back into the first episode I gave you, short and sweet 20 minute ish episodes on specific topics that will help you simplify your motherhood so you can stop living in constant chaos and start feeling a little more on top of your life!
Expect to see themes by the month-ish. We’re taking on the ‘back to school’ topic better late than never here in September, you know…in case August flew by for you too. And then in October & November, because we’re expecting our 4th baby, I couldn’t help myself in planning for a few minimal-ish baby related episodes and OF COURSE some holiday planning and gift buying episodes. So those two months will be a little intermixed with both those themes. I just really wanted you to have my holiday planning episode in October because that’s when I typically start thinking of and planning ahead for the holidays.
That’s the plan for the next few months!
SO, let’s dive into our first September back to school episode where we’re talking all about some visual kid routine checklists to help you not feel so naggy, especially as you begin some new back to school rhythms.
This summer, we used checklists for the first time. We made and used our – Earn TV Time Checklist. This is free to click on, edit, and download for everyone!
We weren’t sure if we were going to homeschool or use our public school system so I created new back to school checklists to kind of fit both scenarios. The one that we wouldn’t have used if we homeschooled would have been the after school checklist. And we’d just cut out a few things from the morning checklist.
We’re going to go through three parts:
What are checklists and how we have them hanging up in our home.
Why they might be helpful for back to school sanity.
We’ll go through our personal checklists so you can have an example to either use in full, change entirely, or make small edits to!
What are checklists and how we have them displayed in our home:
When I say checklist, I’m basically talking about a visual that can be crossed off if desired.
We print ours in color, put them into a clear, hard plastic paper holder that I stick to our refrigerator. Then our kids use expo markers for daily check off. Here is a picture from a non school day (See that the school ‘to do’s are crossed off…and also that we clearly never brushed our teeth that morning which I didn’t notice until I took this picture……ya win some, ya lose some.):
Why checklists might be helpful to for back to school:
Routines are important for your sanity. Especially back to school routines. Your time is already cut short with your kids, the last thing you want is for all your time with them to be spent yelling and nagging and being frustrated that they’re not listening to you because for Pete’s sake, you just need to get out the door. Checklists can help everyone stay on track with routines. Routines are essentially just mental checklists. With a checklist, you’re just putting them into visual form for your kids so they can remember easier and you don’t have to be constantly telling them what to do and instead you can point to the checklist and have them understand that your point means you’re saying, “THERE–did you do your stuff?” Constant nagging makes everyone stressed. So we’re just trying to eliminate a small bit of back to school stress.
Checklists also help set expectations for the routines you want in place. So not only do they have a visual for their routine, they have a visual for what they need to accomplish AND how much of it they’ve accomplished. This can help to keep everyone, parents and kids, from forgetting what you need to get done and pack up to be ready for your day or prep for the next day. You’ll be able to see how much of your day you have completed so you can know that after school, you can’t just go sit down for the rest of the night…things need to get done for the next day.
EVEN if you DON’T use the checklists, just listing all the things out that need to happen at these different parts of the day in your family’s house specifically might be helpful! Maybe you don’t have kids old enough to participate in the checklists, or maybe you don’t want to make them check off boxes, or maybe they’re just not into it and neither are you. Totally fine! This is the first time I’ve ever used something like this because usually checking things off just feels like another task to remember. ANYWAY, EVEN if you DON’T use the checklists for one reason or another, I highly suggest you just take 15 minutes to sit down and go through these parts of your day so you have clear expectations for yourself and the kids and what absolutely NEEDS to get done to keep your home running.
Our personal checklists
(The paywall is coming up—only our paid substack supporters will be getting these checklists to use or edit. If you would like to become a paid supporter, these too can be yours for $4 this month by clicking the button below.)
BUT, you can also make your own using your own “to-dos” or copying some of ours listed below!
HAVE TO-DOs:
Morning
Eat breakfast
Clear plates
Make bed
Get dressed
Hair
Teeth
Ready for school? Backpack / Lunch / Shoes / Outdoor Clothing
After school
Hang backpack
Put Outdoor Gear Away–coat, shoes, any outdoor accessories
File folder
Fill up / replace school water bottle into backpack
Eat snack
(On Fridays we have one slight change that isn’t listed. We put water bottles into the dishwasher on Fridays instead of replacing them into our backpacks.)
Before Bedtime
Pick up toys and art materials
Outfit choice for next day
Pack lunch
Bath
Pajamas
Teeth
Hair
Bathroom
Read Solo
Family Read Aloud
Water
Bed
Then, on a separate checklist, we have helpful tasks. This way, they can see what exactly it might mean to be helpful in our home. With back to school schedules being busier and me wanting to protect their sibling play time, I have no current expectations for these. We have little kids–ages 5, 3.5, 2, and a new baby coming soon. So doing their own routines is helpful enough for me. But over the summer the two big girls had some “chores” of sorts they were expected to do in order to be able to watch TV before bed. This worked well for us. So as the school year goes, I might put more official expectations here, but for now, having flexibility and them generally wanting to be helpful at different times is fine enough for our family right now.
CAN DOs:
Helpful Tasks
Wipe kitchen table
Wipe bathroom sink
Chicken care
Meal help
Set table
Organize something
Dust baseboards
Dust surfaces
Teach your sibling something
Help a younger sibling
Fill up water bottles
Ask mom or dad if they need help
That’s it for the checklists! If you think these might be a useful visual for you and your family, you can make your own (use pictures in addition to text if you have young kids) or you can grab the editable Canva version & non-editable PDF version by becoming a paid supporter on Substack using the link below!
In our next episode, we’ll chat decluttering and keeping our entryways organized for the school year.
If you’re a paid supporter, you can find the link to your checklists
Have an awesome rest of your week!
<3 Tash
Thanks for listening / reading!
<3 Tash
❤️ Time for that paywall—if you are a paid supporter, you’ll find the printable and editable version of these checklists below this line! ⬇️
